SAFA and Bafana Bafana should find their own Rassie

The South African Football Association (Safa) needs a technical and tactical coach/director who can help Bafana Bafana back to the top.

The country’s football needs someone like Rassie Erasmus(Springboks coach) calling shots from the top.

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Someone like Lucas Radebe, who has shown interest in the position of Safa president, can do a good job in rebuilding the national team.

Bafana’s recent defeat to Rwanda proved why former sports minister Fikile Mbalula was spot on when he called them a ‘bunch of losers.’

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The national soccer team has not qualified for a FIFA World Cup since 2002 but last month’s 2-1 win over Benin gave South Africans some hope. A good first half on Saturday saw Bafana show intent and many thought they would show the same spirit and performance against Rwanda but the old same Bafana returned.

SAFA AND BAFANA MUST FIND THEIR OWN RASSIE AND SOON

The team lacked direction and intent during the match. Two quick goals surprised the South Africans, who at times looked confused as if they were playing against Tunisia or Morocco.

After two wins, Bafana lies second on three points and have 24 points to play for.

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The chances of Bafana failing to qualify are high and intervention is needed.

This is why the South African national soccer team and SA Football Association(SAFA) need a revamp.

Safa should look at how SA Rugby Union(SARU) restructured its coaching staff in 2018. After a run of poor results in 2016 and 2017, Allister Coetzee was sacked as Boks coach and replaced with Rassie Erasmus.

Upon his appointment, Erasmus quickly recognised and retained the good things that Coetzee had introduced and worked on them and also introduced a different culture to the team which saw the players celebrating and embracing their differences.

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For Bafana to turn things around, Safa should get rid of Danny Jordaan. Ex-players such as Lucas Radebe, Pierre Issa, and Neil Tovey are more than capable of running Safa.

SAFA technical director role should be given to someone like Steve Khompela. Augusto Palacios, Shakes Mashaba, and Farouk Khan should be roped in to focus on youth development. Bradley Carnell, Steven Pienaar, or even Benni McCarthy could avail themselves to coach either the SA U/17 or U/20 teams.

The changes need to be done after next year’s African Cup of Nations irrespective of how Bafana performs.

Hugo Broos has been the best Bafana coach since Shakes Mashaba but should he fail to reach the quarter-finals, or win three games at the tournament, he should be replaced by either Pitso Mosimane, Rulani Mokwena or Benni McCarthy.

With that being said, how do Safa and Bafana find someone like Rassie Erasmus?

If you have a good structure, everything will fall into place. If our youth teams were firing and Safa was run by leaders, then sacking Broos wouldn’t have been a problem. Losing to Rwanda is an embarrassment and if we had options, most of the players who played on Tuesday would have kissed the national jersey goodbye.

If we had coaches like McCarthy on the junior sides, we would have called him instead to transform the team and guide us safely into 2026. Unfortunately, Rassie Erasmus can’t coach Bafana, even if he wanted to.

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